Important novelty in the SBK file: Korkmaz couple sentenced to prison in the US.
Lev Aslan Dermen (Levon Termenciyan), who is also mentioned in the Sezgin Baran Korkmaz case and is referred to as “Korkmaz’s partner”, was sentenced to 40 years in prison for tax fraud and money laundering.
Sezgin Baran Korkmaz, chairman of the board of directors of SBK Holding, was arrested in Austria in 2021 as part of the investigation launched in the US on charges of “remaining silent despite knowing that the proceeds of crime were laundered.” Korkmaz, who was also investigated in Turkey on ‘money laundering’ charges, was extradited to the United States on July 15, 2022.
In the indictment, it was claimed that the family business Dermen worked for had filed false claims that they “produced and sold renewable biofuels” to benefit from US tax cuts. The four Kingston family members, accused of defrauding more than $500 million, they were found guilty in court this week and sentenced to varying degrees of prison.
Lev Aslan Derman
While brothers Jacob Ortell Kingston and Isaiah Kingston admitted to the allegations, Lev Aslan Dermen, who worked in the fuel industry before joining the Kingston family, denied the allegations.
According to the Bloomberg report, Salt Lake City District Court Judge Jill Parrish announced yesterday her verdict on Dermen, who was found guilty in 2020 of implementing the Kingston family’s plot to defraud the US state of Utah. Dermen was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
SBK IS ALSO ACCUSED OF MONEY LAUNDERING
In the lawsuit, Sezgin Baran Korkmaz is also accused of helping Dermen and Kingston launder $133 million. While the prosecutor’s office claimed that Dermen and Jacob Kingston had traveled to Turkey 9 times, the file also included photos taken at SBK Holding.
In his article published today, spokesman Uğur Dündar stated that there was a major breakthrough regarding the lawsuit filed against Sezgin Baran Korkmaz in the US. Dundar said: “In the correspondence between prosecutors in the Salt Lake City court, where the SBK will appear in court on October 23, and Mark J. Geragos, the lawyer for defendant Levon Termendzhyan (Lev Aslan Dermen), who was found guilty by the jury and demanded life imprisonment, Geragos, Sezgin claimed that Baran Korkmaz was a CIA agent.